Pandemic 2020 - the day after

I read this article and realised that, once we can freely move about again, (side-)effects will manifest themselves that I would never have thought of. To be expected, since I never lived through (touch wood) a pandemic before.
Will there indeed be an opportunity to change things for the better? Will governments jump at the chance?

What is about to be unleashed on American society will be the greatest campaign ever created to get you to feel normal again. It will come from brands, it will come from government, it will even come from each other, and it will come from the left and from the right. We will do anything, spend anything, believe anything, just so we can take away how horribly uncomfortable all of this feels. And on top of that, just to turn the screw that much more, will be the one effort thatís even greater: the all-out blitz to make you believe you never saw what you saw. The air wasnít really cleaner; those images were fake. The hospitals werenít really a war zone; those stories were hyperbole. The numbers were not that high; the press is lying. You didnít see people in masks standing in the rain risking their lives to vote. Not in America. You didnít see the leader of the free world push an unproven miracle drug like a late-night infomercial salesman. That was a crisis update. You didnít see homeless people dead on the street. You didnít see inequality. You didnít see indifference. You didnít see utter failure of leadership and systems.

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From one citizen to another, I beg of you: take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud. We get to Marie Kondo the shit out of it all. We care deeply about one another. That is clear. That can be seen in every supportive Facebook post, in every meal dropped off for a neighbor, in every Zoom birthday party.

the all-out blitz to make you believe you never saw what you saw. The air wasnít really cleaner; those images were fake. The hospitals werenít really a war zone; those stories were hyperbole. The numbers were not that high; the press is lying.

No need to anticipate the end of the lockdown - I'm seeing plenty of this on social media already.

And there are some people being caught by police here in Australia, who still go about their daily lives as though things aren't happening.

We aren't yet in a stricter lockdown that the UK etc is in, but confusion reigns over issues like a jogger being fined - because she'd driven some kms from her home to get there - versus someone else going for a jog around the block from their home.

I'm wondering if the extra security guards at my local shopping centre will be removed after this time. There's an extra one at each of the main supermarkets and one just inside the entrance.

Same applies at bars and nightclubs though. It's perfectly legal for the proprietor of a bar to hire the security staff herself, but for legal and logistical reasons most find it preferable to contract with a security firm.

Whether the woman who is currently working as door security at the Co-op not far from our house is more often to be found at a nightclub I don't know. She is not of a cheerful demeanor, and I don't think she'd encourage questions. But the particular shop doesn't have a uniformed security operative at all in normal times, so it's certainly possible.

One of the things we need to reconsider would be our national strategic infrastructure priorities. It has become embarrassingly clear that our national telecoms are in an abysmal state and unlikely to improve in the current free-market model, so I would suggest we have an urgent need to install gigabit fibre to every house, office, hotel and public lavatory in the land, and to do this within a year or so of returning to normal movement rules.

I would suggest this would be a much wiser investment of taxpayer's money than pointless vanity projects like HS2, as well as being less disruptive and lower risk. It would also provide a Keynesian kick to economic activity.

It has become embarrassingly clear that our national telecoms are in an abysmal state

To be fair, that's been embarrassingly clear for several years now.

PDR wrote:

and unlikely to improve in the current free-market model

Pinko commie scum!

PDR wrote:

so I would suggest we have an urgent need to install gigabit fibre to every house, office, hotel and public lavatory in the land, and to do this within a year or so of returning to normal movement rules.

In other words, we should be more like South Korea. It's not the first time I've said that hereabouts :)

Interestingly, this article points out that South Korea's telecoms revolution has come about by having "one of the world's most active telecommunications and IT markets backed by strong support from the government." I guess that means that people like me can claim it's proof of the effectiveness of Big Government, while the likes of Alexander Howard will be along soon to point out it's a vindication of Free Market economics.

I would suggest we have an urgent need to install gigabit fibre to every house, office, hotel and public lavatory in the land, and to do this within a year or so of returning to normal movement rules.

A bearded man of middle years suggested more or less that six months back. But it wasn't PDR or even barbados so much as Jeremy Corbyn, and the idea was widely ridiculed.

I could say "What changed?", but the question would be fatuous because we all know the answer. But is there any chance whatsoever of the current party of government going with an idea which that man advocated?